‘Data breach costs Indian organisations Rs 5.35 cr annually’

Symantec’s data breach study reveals that Indian organisations spend Rs 5.35 crore to remediate a data breach.

The study, conducted in partnership with Ponemon Institute to assess the annual cost of data breach among Indian organisations, has put the average total cost of a breach at Rs 5.35 crore, with malicious attacks proving to be the costliest type of data breach, at Rs 4,224 on each compromised record.

(Malicious attacks are attempts to forcibly abuse or take advantage of someone’s computer with the intent to steal personal information or reduce the functionality of a target computer.)

The study further revealed that each stolen record costs Indian organisations Rs 2,105 on an average.

While the average cost incurred in notifying customers or victims has been estimated at Rs 15.6 lakh, costs incurred by victims to detect and escalate was found to be higher at Rs 1.64 crore.

Victims lost Rs 1.46 crore on an average, suggesting that customers abandoned organisations after a breach. “Rebuilding loyalty or maintaining reputation, therefore, proved far more expensive,” notes the study.

While highlighting the economic impact of data breaches, the Managing Director (Sales) of Symantec (India and SAARC), Mr Anand Naik, emphasised the importance of information protection policies and practices in organisations. “The value of data has never been greater, especially with rapid adoption of new technologies and providing access to business information — anywhere, anytime.”

To prevent data breaches and protect confidential information, organisations should identify and classify information after assessing the risk, deploy technologies to prevent data loss, implement two-factor authentication, educate employees on information protection policies and hold them accountable and finally integrate the policy into business processes, he said.

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